Affectionate
by chrichuu
Summary: In which Echizen Ryoma, the brick, turns soft. Do bricks turn soft?


**Affectionate**

_Written by: Chiyoh Mi_

"Sa-Ku-No!"

It was a very nice morning in Tokyo. The sun was up and there was no sign of any rainfalls. Children and their mothers were strolling in the park, for today was a Saturday. Friends can be seen in the nooks and crannies of the mall's grounds, completely bored out of their wits. However, in a café in the far right of the city, three friends were sitting very casually, chatting every now and then about the current happenings in their lives. Well, at least two of them were.

Tachibana An huffed once again, clearly showing her annoyance at the coach's granddaughter. For the nth time, she tried to get the attention of one Ryuzaki Sakuno, who was busy dozing off.

"Ryuzaki Sakuno!"

Stirring a little, the girl with the long plaits lifted her head from her comfortable hands turned pillow and yawned at An. Osakada Tomoka laughed at the hilarity her two best friends were showing. An glared at her, not liking her response one bit.

"S-sorry, what were w-we talking about again?" With another yawn, Sakuno sat up properly before slouching once again in a tired manner.

Tomoka, who had thrown out her amused expression for the sake of the Tachibana girl, stared at Sakuno with upmost interest. "Ne, Saku-chan, didn't you get at least a wink last night?"

She only got a yawn for a reply. An's eye twitched in annoyance. "Boy, for the scary coach's only girl grandchild, you sure do know how to slack off sometimes."

With her grandmother mentioned, Sakuno snapped out of her sleepy behavior and immediately went back to her regular posture. "D-don't tell Obaa-chan!"

Tomoka laughed once again before patting her shoulder. "Can you at least tell us why you seem so tired this morning? As far as I know, you didn't have tennis practice earlier."

The Ryuzaki girl tensed. This caught the attention of her friends. An spoke with curiosity, "What happened, Sakuno?"

The said girl quickly averted her eyes from the blue and brown pairs of eyes currently searching her mahogany ones in attempt to find the answer. She stared on the menu that she had slept on and began reading the delicious pastries and drinks available. "What do you guys think is the best one here?"

Sensing that Sakuno won't be telling them her reason, they pitched in her conversation and threw the previous one on the street. "I heard that the blueberry cheesecake ice cream's delicious."

"Are you sure, though? Ami from our Science Class said that the vanilla raspberry sundae is the best."

Sakuno smiled. "Why don't you guys taste them yourselves? I've wanted to try the strawberry scoops with chocolate syrup, anyway."

Tomoka and An stared at her with disbelief.

"But you were the one who asked for the best!" Tomoka exclaimed.

An added, "How will we know which one is the best if you don't try it out?"

Sakuno stared at the both of them with sheepish eyes. "Then we'll try them all together."

: : : : : : : : :

On the other side of the city, the old Seigaku regulars were playing tennis with each other.

"Momoshiro, raise your dunk smash's power 35% greater." The still scientifically-inclined Inui Sadaharu didn't even have to look up to the game, for he can tell the power of the smash by its sound. Eiji Kikumaru playfully somersaulted across the other side of the court, taunting Momo to apply more force to his smashes.

The ever smiling face of Fuji Shusuke came into view. "Saa, it doesn't sound like your old smashes back then, Momo."

Momoshiro smiled sheepishly at them. "I think I'm losing my touch. It has been a long time since you guys saw me smash."

A gruff voice spoke up. "I don't think six years is a long time, porcupine."

"Shut up, Mamushi."

"Okay guys, break it up." Oishi Shuichiro suddenly got between them before they caused any harm.

"It has been a while since the last time we saw each other." Kawamura Takashi stated, arriving at the scene.

"Taka-san! Bunchou!"

"Sorry we're late…I saw Tezuka on the way, so I decided to accompany him here." The bashful Taka-san scratched the back of his head before placing down the barrel he was holding. "I brought tons of sushi to make it up."

It was a matter of milliseconds before the sounds of clanking rackets were heard. Inui lifted his head to the court, only to find it empty. He sighed before making his way to the rest of the team.

"By the way, where is Echizen?" Oishi asked, not seeing their youngest member.

"Ochibi said that he would go grab Ponta." Eiji said in between mouthfuls.

On the far end of the park, Echizen Ryoma stood by the vending machines, placing the cool can of Ponta over his cheek, in attempt to keep himself awake. A few other cans were scattered around the bench, all of them still unharmed. Grabbing the rest of the cans, he went back to the team. Though his ears suddenly perked up when he heard his old senpai-tachi talking about him.

"Speaking of Echizen, do you think he made a move already with the coach's granddaughter?" Momo asked, his eyes never leaving the plate of tamago sushi.

Inui made a move to get his old green notebook. Flipping on its pages, he found the one he was looking for.

"Echizen Ryoma's Love Life Status." They read, as Inui showed them the one pager category.

Taka-san stopped serving sushi for a while to talk. "You know, for someone who can fill up Inui's notebook full of tennis data, he barely has any on his romance page."

"Yeah, Ochibi's kind of slow, don't you think? I mean, even Tezuka had at least two pages of it filled." Eiji stated out loud, his face suddenly calm from eating.

From a far, Ryoma's eye twitched. "_Who do they think they are? Haven't they heard about, 'Don't judge a book by its cover'?"_ He thought to himself.

"Echizen!" Taka-san welcomed, as he stood up to help the once short member of their team. He was still short, though, compared to them.

"Whoa, is the vending machine broken or what? The drinks are warm!" Momoshiro commented. Ryoma didn't say anything; instead, he sat down on the grass.

"Are you okay, Echizen? Even this morning you look tired!"

Ryoma yawned, not minding his senpais. Out of curiosity, he stared on the box of sushi left. As if knowing his mute inquiry, Fuji answered him. "Momo's girlfriend, Osakada-san and Ryuzaki-chan will be coming over."

The tennis prodigy went back to leaning on the tree, hiding the smirk forming under his cap.

It didn't take long before he woke up from his short nap from the sudden noise around him. He scanned the area to find that the three girls, who had shopping bags on their arms, sitting across from him eating the untouched sushi box. One of them suddenly yawned.

"Saku-chan, you're still sleepy?"

That caught the attention of the rest of the regulars.

Eiji spoke up. "Ochibi's sleepy too! Like an old zombie!"

An stared at one of her best friends before slowly moving her eyes to the tennis player across from them. "You don't say?"

Momo spoke up, "He's been like that all morning. Grabbing all the beverage cans and placing them on his cheek. I'm surprised he managed to stay awake for his game earlier."

An grabbed the rest of the team near her and Tomoka. Sakuno had fallen asleep once again.

"Isn't it weird how both of them are completely bummed out?"

"You don't think…" Oishi began.

Momo scoffed. "Echizen's a little bit of a brick to be like that."

"I know, I know. But look! The proof's there in front of us." His girlfriend countered.

"Hey, where are they anyway?"

All of them turned from their huddling and into the scene. Echizen and Ryuzaki were nowhere to be found.

: : : : : : : : :

"It's you."

"Coach."

"What do you want now?"

Ryoma showed his former coach the girl that was currently resting on his back. Immediately, the old genius opened the door a little wider.

"H-hi Obaa-chan…" Sakuno nervously started.

Ryuzaki Sumire sighed. "I know I told you that hanging out in the middle of the night is okay, but for the love of tennis, sleep!"

Sakuno smiled nervously at her grandmother, and then stared at Ryoma.

"Both of you go to bed. I'll be out shopping for dinner. When I come back, I want you guys to be refreshed, not tired, got it?"

: : : : : : : : :

"Where do you think they went to?"

"Who knows?"

"Hey look! It's Ryuzaki-sensei!"

The said lady turned to look at them. She smiled at them before turning completely at their direction.

"Where are you heading, Coach?" Momo asked, noting how much grocery their old coach was holding. He got one of the bags from her. Eiji got another, and so as Inui. The rest, except for the two girls, went home earlier.

"Oh, we have a guest tonight."

After walking for a while, they entered the premises of the Ryuzaki's, not noticing the familiar shoes with the letter R by the doorway.

Sumire let out a sigh of relief before thanking them. "Oh, and before you go, can you do me a favor and get the paper towels upstairs?"

Eiji raced up the stairs, not paying heed to the fact that he didn't know where they kept the paper towels. "Remember, second door to the left."

When he got upstairs, he saw three doors. One was on the other side, so he figured that was it. He was humming to himself when he opened the door.

Then he was suddenly standing there looking like a statue at the scene that was in front of him.

"Guys!"

An, Tomoka, Momo and Inui ran upstairs immediately. "What's wrong, Kikumaru-senpai?"

"Look!" The redhead pointed forward, to the opened door he had mistaken for the storage. The rest followed his finger, only to find themselves shocked too.

Sumire noted four thuds coming from the second floor. Curious, she went up and found the teens laying on the floor across Sakuno's opened one.

She peered inside, to find that the two sleepyheads were indeed asleep. Just that Ryoma's arm was around Sakuno's waist. She smiled at the scene before closing the door.

She grabbed the paper towels from the closet, and started to go downstairs to make dinner, only to see the data analyzer scribbling madly on the other side of the hallway, uttering miscalculations under his breath on Ryoma's love life. He stared at the Coach, as if wanting to ask something.

Sumire smirked before stating, "Several years ago, maybe two years after Ryoma went to America. Hiding their status ever since." With that, the analyzer also fell on the floor, not believing that the brick turned soft, without even noticing it.

: : : : : : : : :

_**A/N:** When was the last time I made a one-shot? Lol. Hope you like this! I had been very busy with a lot of things, so yeah. And oh, about Future Life with the Echizen's, I'm rewriting it. Yup. Rewriting everything. In a few more days, I'm going to delete it, and rewrite it. I will be making alterations here and there. But hey, I'll be applying the changes that you guys wanted me to do! Thanks for the support guys! Hope you like this one. :)_


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